1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a protective device for electronic equipment that is mounted in a vehicle and arranged around a vehicle body reinforcing member.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, various electrical equipment has come to be mounted in vehicles. A large number of technologies to protect such electrical equipment, even when tremendous force is applied to the vehicle due to a vehicle collision, have been proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-097052 (JP 2001-097052 A) describes technology in which an inverter is arranged so as to rotate while being guided by a suspension tower, when the inverter abuts against the suspension tower due to a collision, in order to minimize the impact transmission toward the rear and prevent harnesses from breaking Also, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-262673 (JP 2006-262673 A), Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-154757 (JP 2009-154757 A), Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-262894 (JP 2005-262894 A), Japanese Patent Application Publication No.
2007-290479 (JP 2007-290479 A), and Japanese Patent No. 4269848 also describe technology for protecting onboard parts and the like when a vehicle collision occurs.
However, many of these technologies mainly presume a case in which the front of a vehicle collides with an object. A case in which the side of a vehicle collides with a pole or the like, such that force is received from the side of the vehicle has not been given sufficient consideration.
For example, in a hybrid vehicle, onboard electronic equipment such as an inverter may be mounted in an engine compartment or the like. Also, inside the engine compartment, vehicle body reinforcing members and members for reinforcing the rigidity of the vehicle body may be arranged to the inside of the electronic equipment. In this situation, if the side of the vehicle collides with a pole or the like such that the vehicle receives force from the side, the electrical equipment moves and collides with a vehicle body reinforcing member. In this case, vehicle body reinforcing members are usually extremely rigid, so the impact of the collision is unable to be absorbed and as a result, the wall surface of the electrical equipment collides with the vehicle body reinforcing member may become damaged.